Stating that the Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) launched on Thursday amounted to an assault on what he called “financial untouchability”, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said banks have managed to open a record 1.5 crore new accounts on the inaugural day of the scheme. He said by Republic Day, 2015, as many as 7.5 crore households would be covered under the comprehensive financial inclusion programme, with at least one bank account for each.

The PMJDY, which got off to a blistering start with public and private sector banks vying to exceed the targets they set for themselves, also includes insurance and pension facilities.

The RuPay debit card being given to the beneficiaries will have an inbuilt accident insurance cover of R1 lakh and an overdraft facility up to R5,000, Modi said. All those who open an account by Republic Day next year will also get a life insurance cover of R30,000. The PM said PMJDY was also aimed at eliminating corruption as it would facilitate routing of subsidies directly into the accounts of intended beneficiaries.

For a glimpse of how banks embraced the scheme, witness the Bank of Maharashtra-hosted mega show at a wedding hall in Pune that normally is home to lavish weddings. The hall was packed and people spilled out on to the lawns — of the close to 1,000 people present, 500 were new account holders from in and around Pune.

The country’s largest bank, State Bank of India opened 20 lakh new savings accounts on Thursday through 10,000 camps held across the country. Bank of Baroda said it surpassed the mandate to open 10 lakh accounts while Union Bank of India opened 5 lakh accounts. IDBI Bank said it opened over 3.62 lakh basic savings accounts under PMJDY against the 2 lakh target, and held camps at more than 6,800 locations. Bharatiya Mahila Bank, India’s first women’s bank, said it organised 43 camps on Thursday.

“The use of debit cards will allow the unbanked to start building a transaction history, which can be a decisive step in initiating them towards financial inclusion. This will also help the banks for better product designing and targeting,” said

SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya.

The government would institute a credit guarantee fund post-August 2015, officials said. Bankers say that if the overdraft in these basic accounts go bad, the government would pay a portion of that from this fund.